In the Darkest of Hours
by flamezcl
Summary: Flame is a femme who's been through a lot. She's been experimented on, botnapped, and a lot of other shit. And somehow, romance and sparklings come in the mix. How could her life get any crazier? Oh yeah, everybody finding out the secret she's been hiding for orns.
1. Chapter 1: Taken in By the Enemy

I finally finished patrolling the streets of the nearby city for any Decepticon activity, and once I didn't find any, I decided to go back to the Autobot base. I sighed and transformed into my regular mode which was a sleek, blood red mixed with black femme. I stretched and looked out into the distance which was dotted by the large rocky mountains out in the distance.

I sighed and turned into my other alt mode which was a shiny Seeker and started to fly back to the base. As I started getting closer to the base, I had to make sure that I changed back into my car mode, otherwise, the other Autobots would see the part of me that I could never let them see. It would be the end of me.

Literally.

I started driving down the rough, dirt path towards the rocky entrance but was quickly ambushed and held down by an unknown force. I tried shouting for help, but a sticky substance was put over my face plate. I turned my head to the side and there were ropes tying me and nailing me down to the ground.

I looked up and saw a weird looking human standing over my frame. He raised a taser-like object and struck it on me. The darkness overtakes me and my processor starts to shut down.

-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-

I forced my optics back online, but my vision was half as clear than it usually is. When my optics started to refocus, I finally took in the sight of a large type of lab and sat up slowly on the berth looking slab of metal. It looked like the same one that Ratchet has, but slightly smaller. I looked up and searched for any signs of life.

I finally took sight of that same weird looking human again, "Hello, my name is James. I'd love to know your name," he said as if he didn't do anything earlier.

I restrained my anger and decided to be polite but forceful, "Flame. Who are you, where am I, and what are you doing?"

"One shouldn't be so needy for answers," the man said. I growled and opened my mouth to speak, but he said quickly, "But I will provide them. As you already know, my name is James, you're at a MECH laboratory, and I'm just experimenting. You ever wanted to be human?"

"You're point?" I asked impatiently with an optical ridge lifted.

"How do I somehow manage to capture all the cranky ones?" he muttered to himself.

"I'm not cranky, now answer me," I demanded.

"Yes, yes," James said putting up his hands in mock surrender, "Silas ordered me to see if human to bot transformation is possible, and of course they don't want me to test it on a human because it's not "morally correct." I don't see their point, but I have to follow orders."

"So you decided to experiment on me?" I asked.

"Pretty much. Now, we don't want you awake during this procedure. It'll be quite painful and a lot of Energon will be spilled and blood will be given."

I scoffed, "Yeah, just what I wanted. 'Cause y'know. Life's not important. I wanted to die today anyway."

James burst out laughing, "Yes, I know. It's quite jarring, but, it's all in the name of _science_!" he shook his head, "You know, you're quite the company. Nobody really ever bothers talking to me. They say I'm crazy. What do you think?"

"You're fucking insane."

"Aww, and I was just beginning to think this was the start of a beautiful relationship," he said teasingly.

I shook my head and laid down on the metal slab, "Whatever doc, just work your magic," I gave in.

"With pleasure."

With that said, I lost my vision once more.

-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-

When I woke back up, I saw James crying, his hand on mine. I squeezed his hand to see if he was okay.

He looked up shocked, "H-how d-did you s-s-survive?"

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Look at the heart monitor," he said and pointed.

I looked over and saw that it was beeping like it should, but rather it showed that there was one long line and a loud "BEEEEEP" coming from it. I believed that's what humans call a "flatline."

I looked back over to James and he said seriously, "I don't want you to tell anybody, okay? You don't know how many agents would swarm over us if you told. They'd be watching your every move."

"I promise I won't Jamie. Anyways, why were you so distraught? You barely even know me?" I asked.

"I-I really don't know. I just feel like we have a connection," he said as his face turned an interesting shade of red.

"Your face is turning colors, is that normal?"

James jumped up and covered his face, "Hush!"

I looked at him confusedly but just shrugged, "Well, anyways, did the experiment work?" I said as I stood up.

James looked back up at me and screeched like a girl and turned back around while covering his eyes, "YES! IT FUCKING WORKED, BUT LET ME GET YOU SOME CLOTHES, SO JUST LIKE, DON'T COME NEAR ME. OKAY?" he yelled.

I laughed internally as he left. When he finally came back in, he had in one arm, some underwear, and in the other, a black t-shirt that said in red letters, "It's Every Other Day Bro" with black skinny jeans.

He walked back out so I could change, and once I pulled on the underwear, I started at the shirt. I tried thinking of where I had seen that before, but couldn't put my finger on it. So, I stopped trying to figure it out, and just slipped it on and tugged up my pants. It was a perfect fit.

I went over to the mirror on the other side of the room and checked myself out. My curves fit nicely in the jeans, and my breasts were nice and perky.

When James walked back in, his jaw practically unhinged and dropped to the ground.

I started twirling and swishing my hips then asked James teasingly, "What do you think, Jamie?"

"You look stunning," he answered truthfully, "Now, let's see if you can transform back to your bot self. Think hard and focus on what you want to look like. Kind of like how you transform into your car mode."

I thought really hard about my original frame, and then all of a sudden I started transforming back to my bot self again.

After I transformed, a loud explosion appeared in front of us that knocked both me and Jamie out. But before my optics offlined, I saw Knockout walking towards me.

"Well, if it isn't the great warrior princess," Knockout said joyfully.

After that comment, a wave of darkness overcame me once more that day.

-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-

When I onlined my optics again, I looked around at my surroundings, realizing that I'm in familiar unfamiliar territory:

The Nemesis, the Decepticon warship.

"Glad to see your online again. Welcome to your new home."

I turned around to see who the voice belonged to and gasped when I saw who it was.


	2. Chap 2: An Army and a Femme is a Crowd

" _Glad to see your online again. Welcome to your new home."_

 _I turned around to see who the voice belonged to and gasped when I saw who it was._

It was Megatron!

"What do you want?" I growled at him.

"Don't have that tone with me, Missy. I was going to give you a tour of the ship, so you could get to know the bots here, and find you berthroom, but maybe you'd enjoy a cell," he said a cold, clipped tone.

I immediately changed my mood, "Um, no, sir. But, if you don't mind me asking, why are you being so nice to me?"

Megatron answered, "I told you before, this is your new home."

"Why do you want me to stay here so badly, and why haven't you ripped my spark out yet?" I asked cautiously.

"1, so I could capture Optimus Prime in a trap, and 2, because who could destroy such a pretty faceplate?" Megatron explained.

"Flattery might get you somewhere," I teased.

"Oh, will it now?" he smirked, "But do you agree to let us take care of you?"

 _Well, I do like living life on the edge. Why the frag not._

I just had one question, "But, what will the Autobots think?"

"Don't worry about them. They'll probably just think we kidnapped you," he reassured me.

I bit my derma and thought about it, and the darker side of me started overpowering the side that was telling me to put a hole through Megatron's chassis, "Alright, fine, King Con."

"King...Con?" Megatron asked slowly.

 _I bet he's never had someone like me on board his ship...Well, he's in for a surprise._

"Yes," I confirmed, "If I'm gonna live here, I'm gonna call you King Con, not this Lord Megatron bullshit."

"Fine," he said exasperated, "little fragger. C'mon," he said as he gestured towards the door, "let me give you a tour.

We walked around, and he showed me all the rooms, which were gigantic, I must say. An upgrade from the cramped Autobot base. I saw the control room where Soundwave was working quite diligently. He seemed unconcerned that I was there, and he only glanced at me and went back to typing on the holographic keyboard. Slightly offended, I stuck up my middle digit when he wasn't looking and turned back around where Megatron was leaning up against the side of the entrance smirking.

He shook his helm, and we walked to a nearby room that turned out to be the medic bay. I peeked in, and Knockout and Breakdown were trying to repair Starscream's arm from a previous battle. Again, it seemed, as they were muttering curses under their breath saying they ought to keep the arm as it is since Starscream damages so much.

Megatron then took me to their rec room where I started to slowly meet everyone on the ship. Most of them gave me a warm welcome, and others seemed much friendlier trying to "get with me" as the humans say.

I finally broke away from the crowd and walked towards to Megatron, "Does everybody _always_ act like this?"

"You should see them when they get overcharged on high grade energon...Is it a problem?" he asked concerned.

"No, it's perfect," I quietly reassured, watching the mechs laugh and chat amongst themselves.

"Good," Megatron started, "Then let me show you to your berthroom."

I commented, "For a prisoner, I'm being treated very nice."

Megatron looked at me with his blood red eyes and said seriously, "You are _not_ a prisoner. I will take care of you like you are my own sparkling. In fact, think of me as your sire."

I laughed, "Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, King Con."

Megatron grumbled, still not loving the name, "Why do I always get the sarcastic ones."

"Because you love 'em," I said matter-of-factly.

"I do," he said and kissed my helm."

I wiped off his kiss and grinned widely, "Didn't think you'd take that 'sire' thing seriously."

"I'm always serious."

I guffawed, "Yep, how could I forget! Well, then where's my berthroom?" I mock demanded.

"Right this way, your highness," Megatron said playing along.

I winced internally. I was trying to get away from that title. I didn't need my past following me wherever I go because it's not something that anyone should know.

Ever.

Megatron led me past numerous guards and I asked, "Why're there so many guards in this area?"

I felt like I was being ignored because he never answered, so I just dropped it.

Once we finally reached our destination, he answered my previous question," Because your room is right next to my quarters."

He punched in some numbers that I easily remembered since I have great memory. The door opened and my processor almost shut down by the beauty of the room.

I looked around gasping about every little thing. The berth was gorgeous. It had a silky black sheet, and there were things like pillows that were at the head of the bed that were black and purple. There was a soft, plushy sofa, and in front of it, was a large TV. There was also a desk, a plush chair, and a lamp in the corner. The walls were also painted black, which wasn't a problem to me because that was my 2nd favorite color. I literally froze up trying to take it all in.

"Is the color okay? My Decepticons could paint the walls a different color if you'd like?" Megatron asked, concern etched in his voice.

"No, it's perfect," I whispered.

"You're saying that a lot today."

I turned to Megatron, "You have no idea cool this is. Like, this is such a step up from that stupid, stuffy base. I was never really treated as well as I am here. There was always someone who wanted to pick a fight with me, so I never really enjoyed it there. But here, I can see that things are going to be different here. So, this really is perfect."

Megatron gave one of his rare smiles, "Good. Well, come, get some recharge," he said as I yawned.

"'Kay," I agreed sleepily.

I had to prepare myself for what would happen tomorrow. Because inevitably, with being onboard this crazy ship, something was bound to happen.


	3. Chapter 3: Unexpected Visitors

I woke up to find Soundwave next to me. I stared at Soundwave with an unwavering expressionless face, but internally, I had a spark attack.

"Lord Megatron requires you to be in the control room in 15 minutes," Soundwave spoke.

"Okay, tell him I'll be there in a few minutes," I replied.

Soundwave looked taken aback and asked, "You're not surprised that I can talk?"

"No because I used to do the same thing. I'm not explaining," I said quickly.

Soundwave just walked out, probably going back to report to Megatron of my awakening. I opened up my comm link, and a wave of pings bombarded me from the Autobots.

I ignored them, got up from my berth, and walked down the winding corridors towards the control room.

As I walked down a hall, I saw 2 red eyes looking at me from a dark corner. Then, big teeth bared in a smile, and out of the darkness popped a black, shiny head. It looked like a cyberhound!

Cyberhounds were extremely rare on Cybertron, and usually very ferocious, but this one seemed very friendly.

I kneeled down, "What are you doing here?" I asked the hound.

"Ruff!" the dog replied.

And something strange happened that has happened to me a few times before. Somehow, I could hear the hound's growly voice saying, "I love you" in my helm.

I stared at the strange hound and it stared back. Eventually, we both broke out into smiles.

"I know what I'm gonna call you," I whispered, "Blackclaw."

"I like that name," Blackclaw said in my helm.

"C'mon, I have to get to Megatron."

"'Kay."

We both walked down the halls, and once we reached the control room, Megatron greeted us both.

"Oh, hello, you two. I see that you've met our cyberhound, Flame. We found him one day while we were out looking for survivors and he was there, so we decided to take him in. Train him to be a killing machine, but, he's turned out to be a wuss."

"Hey!" Blackclaw protested.

"Oh, shut up, you stupid excuse for a guard hound," barked back.

I snickered, while the hound silently fumed in a corner. Megatron handed me a cube of energon.

"Here's some breakfast for you," he said.

"Thanks," I replied, "Can I go out? I just want to get you some gifts for taking me in and taking such good care of me."

Megatron hesitated, "Okay, but Soundwave _must_ accompany you."

"Thank you, King Con!" I giddily replied and ran out the room.

Soundwave was already waiting for me. Then I realized Blackclaw was following me.

"Blackclaw, go to Megatron and stay with him 'til I come back," I told the hound.

The hound barked in affirmation and trotted off.

Soundwave and I both went in the room where the ground bridge was and he asked, "So, where do you want to go?"

"Well, I have one place in mind...How about somewhere near the MECH base," I answered.

He nodded and tapped in the coordinates, "After you."

I went through and then he went in after me, us walking into a lush forest that was nearby the base. I suddenly realized that I would have to turn human if I was going to walk in through the front door.

I turned to Soundwave and demanded, "Don't tell this to Megatron or anybot, but while I was here at MECH, a scientist did an experiment to turn me into a human."

"I understand," was all he said.

Internally, I was cursing Soundwave for being so monotone and having a visor over his faceplate, so that I couldn't see his emotions. I HATED IT.

I kept my optics on Soundwave and made sure that he wouldn't try to do anything, and I finally transformed into a human. Not aware of the blue optics following my every move. Soundwave followed me towards the entrance of the building.

I facepalmed, "I forgot that you have to come with me. Okay, well, I can get you in. I'll distract the guards, and I need you to _silently_ creep past them, okay?"

Soundwave nodded, and we executed the plan with no hiccups. Soundwave and I entered James' laboratory cautiously.

"James!" I called out.

"Who's there?" James yelled back.

"Your favorite bot/human," I replied.

James ran out from wherever he was and gave me a big hug, "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Ep ep ep, don't start," I said quickly.

Soundwave's field flickered with amusement.

"Okay," then his face went serious, "What did you really come here for?"

"I need a big ass ray gun," I replied.

James's face brightened up and said, "Yeah, I might have one of those lying around."

James walked over to this huge storage room and pulled out the biggest ray gun I had ever seen!

I snatched it and laughed maniacally, "Yeah, this'll do, thanks!"

I ran out of the room, Soundwave right on my heels. Fuck it if guards see us.

Once we reached the outside, I transformed into my jet mode and said, "We have to go to the store to buy a oven, flour, eggs-."

"What is the meaning of all those...materials?"

"We're going to make cupcakes for King Con!" I exclaimed gleefully.

He stared at me with his emotionless visor and then his field bursted with amusement and started laughing, "Okay, I'll go along with this plan of yours."

"Good, because we were going anyway," I replied.

"I also must ask you, how can you transform into a flying alt mode?"

I froze, _Fuck, shit, dickbag of bullshit cocksucking Soundwave knows. Holy ShiET. What the fuck am I supposed to do?_

"I'm...special."

"Ah, yes. You are. You're the first quadruplechanger I've met."

I breathed a sigh of relief, _He doesn't think of anything of it._

"Haha, yeah…"

Once we finally arrived at the store, I made him wait outside, "Hey, Soundwave, obviously because you're you, you can't come inside, but I should be out in a few minutes, 'kay?"

Soundwave nodded his helm while I transformed to my human state and walked into the grocery store. I grabbed a cart that was near to the door and started walking down aisles that had what I needed. I picked up and put in my cart flour, salt, baking powder, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and sugar. The store had run out of eggs, so I stole some from another lady's cart and put it in mine. I quickly ran down the aisle to where the baking pans were and picked up 5 cake pans. Then I gathered some mixing bowls.

I determined that I was finished getting all the supplies that I needed out of the store. I then went into the self checkout, and scanned all of the items and put them into bags.

Then I realized something critically important, "Shoot! I don't have any money!"

I looked around and noticed that nobody was paying attention to me, so I snatched all the bags off the rack and started to walk quickly out of the checkout area. The worker that was supervising area noticed me, and I started to jog out the store. Before I knew it, there was security chasing after me, yelling at me to stop running and face the law.

"FUCK DA POLICE COMING STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND," a person yelled, startling the officers.

I cackled and ran off into the forest where Soundwave was waiting, "Here! Open your doors, I need to put these inside!"

Soundwave quickly complied and once the materials were secure, I transformed into my alt jet mode and flew off with Soundwave following silently behind. We went to the appliance store next to get an oven. I went outside and asked if a worker could get me a cart, so I could wheel the oven towards the checkout.

When the guy came back, he lifted it onto the cart, "So, do you need any help wheeling this?"

I replied, "Oh, no, sir. I'll do just fine, thank you."

The guy nodded and walked off. I started to wheel the oven over to where the checkout area was but made a sharp turn to the door. I sprinted out of the store with the oven in front of me and ran to Soundwave who already had his door open for me to shove the oven in. Once I did, I transformed, and we took off.

We started flying near the Autobot base, and Soundwave questioned my actions, "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," I replied, "I'm just going to this spot I found a few decacycles ago. It was glowing, but I didn't have time to properly investigate because I was called back to the base immediately to prepare for battle. But, if it's what I think it is…"

We flew over an area of dirt that was glowing bright red and landed next to the bright space, "Hey, can you help me digging through here?"

Soundwave silently started to dig, but when I bent down to help, he held out an arm and shook his helm. I then stood back up and watched him work until he finally found what I was looking for.

Red energon.

We gathered all the energon we could carry and put it in our cockpits. We flew towards the Nemesis and landed gracefully on the landing pad.

One mech said, "You two have been gone for a long while."

"Just getting some things," I said as I ran towards my room with Soundwave jogging behind me.

We entered my berthroom, and I took out all of the items we had gathered that day. I sat the oven down on the ground and looked for anything to connect it to.

"Hey Soundwave, do you know if there's a power source in here anywhere?"

Soundwave opened a panel on his arm and connected it to the oven, powering it up. I then grabbed all the ingredients to make what humans call "cupcakes", but I'd make them Cybertronian style.

"Y'know, I've always wanted to do this…" I muttered.

I preheated the oven to 375°F and then grabbed one of the mixing bowls, butter, sugar and eggs. I mixed the ingredients together in the bowl until it looked smooth. I then added in the flour with baking soda and a pinch of salt.

I then realized I was missing something, "Hey, Soundwave, I'm going to the rec room, but I'll be right back."

I sprinted out of the room and into the rec room where an energon dispenser was. I grabbed two cubes and filled them to the top. Some mechs stared at me, but most didn't care and laughed.

I rolled my eyes and ran back out towards my room where Soundwave was waiting, "So, I'm going to use energon instead of milk because, why not. Hopefully, it'll taste good. And if it doesn't well than frag me in the aft."

Soundwave made a sound that I interpreted as a laugh, and I smiled. I mixed in the energon with the rest of the ingredients until it was well mixed and poured out the mixture throughout the 5 cake pans. I put the pans in the oven with a little difficulty as my servos were almost too big to put things inside. I then set the timer to 18 minutes.

I took another mixing bowl out and mixed the powdered sugar and butter together quickly then stirred in some vanilla with some more energon. I kept adding in the energon until the mixture was smooth and spreadable. Once I was sure it looked like icing, I put the bowl aside and waited while the oven was busy baking the cake batter.

I sighed and glanced over at Soundwave who was watching me intently, "Is there something you needed?"

"No…" he said quietly, "You're just very...distracting…"

I smirked, "Thank you, I like to take pride in being distracting. It's pretty helpful."

Soundwave's field flickered with amusement for a second before he went back to being emotionless. The oven finally beeped, and I took out the pans. The cake was gold with a hint of blue.

Soundwave disconnected himself from the oven and I asked him, "Hey, do you know if there's anything like a large metal pan, so I can put these cupcakes in?"

He left silently and came back a few minutes later with exactly what I needed, "Thanks, Soundwave."

I then took the metal from him and sat the cakes on it. I grabbed the mixing bowl full of icing from off my desk and started to spread it onto the cakes until they looked like big ass human cupcakes.

I then took one from the bach and took a bite, "Oh, Primus. This is delicious!" I handed the eaten cupcake to Soundwave, "Here, try it."

He shook his head, so I sighed and walked over to him then stuffed the rest of the cupcake into his mouth.

He nodded his head and tried to mask his deep appreciation for the cupcake, "Yes, it's really good. Good job."

I beamed, "Come on, we've got to now lug all these things to Megsy. Do y'all have tarp?"

Soundwave left the room again and came back with what I wanted. I then ripped it into two pieces and wrapped up the ray gun and red energon into the two pieces.

"You can take the tarp, I'll take the cupcakes," I said.

Soundwave nodded and we walked into the control room carrying our respective items in our arms. Megatron was growling out orders and watching the screens.

I called out to him, "Hey, Megs. Offline your optics and hold out your servos."

Megatron looked startled but did as I said. I took one of the cupcakes off the pan and put it in his servo.

"You have to eat it, but keep your optics offlined," I demanded.

Megatron slowly brought it to his mouth and then finally ate it. His faceplate turned into one of pure bliss.

"Mmm," he purred, "What are these?"

"They're called cupcakes, or that's at least what the humans call them, but I switched up the recipe a little," I laughed.

Soundwave laughed quietly and held his helm in his servos.

I then said, "Okay, okay. Don't worry, I've got more for you in this pan. You can have them later. Now, I need you to keep your optics offlined and keep your servos out."

I took the ray gun out of the tarp and hefted it up onto his large servos. I told him to online his optics and his faceplate lit up like the sun.

"Wow, Primus," Megatron breathed, "I rarely say this, but thank you. I sincerely thank you for this."

I blushed, "No need. Now, for this, you don't need to offline your optics."

When Soundwave and I took the red energon out of the tarp, he looked like he offlined and onlined again, "Oh. My. Primus. How? How did you find _red energon_? It has taken us forever just to find a trace of it, and not even a crystal at that!"

I was just about to explain when the wall exploded, and out burst a black and neon green femme.

"Hello, Flame. I haven't seen you in a long time."


	4. Chapter 4: Captured by a New Enemy

_I was just about to explain when the wall exploded, and out burst a black and neon green femme._

" _Hello, Flame. I haven't seen you in a long time."_

It was the Autobot, Wasp!

Megatron growled, "Somebody stop her!"

I looked over to the cupcakes that had gotten splattered all over the wall by the explosion.

"Grr," I growled, "You destroyed my cupcakes!"

I lunged at her, but Wasp narrowly dodged my attack. I quickly recovered and kicked her in the faceplate.

"You shouldn't have done that," she growled.

She grabbed me by my arm and twisted it around until the wires and circuits started to break apart. Using the rest of her strength, she ripped my arm clean off!

I clenched my denta in pain as huge amounts of energon dripped from the hole where my arm once resided. My vision blurry.

"The subject is neutralized," I heard Wasp say.

I turned my head to a big, silver bot who had been knocked out by Wasp with the same needle, and I weakly whispered, "Megatron."

Wasp approached me with a needle and smirked, "Night, glitch."

Then I fell into a forced recharge.

-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-

When I onlined my optics again, I saw Ratchet towering over me.

 _Shiiiii…_

I felt absolutely miserable, _What the hell am I supposed to do?_ I sighed internally, but then was struck by an idea that could probably work, _I'll just pretend to be on their side. Then when we go into battle again, I'll rejoin the Decepticons! If this doesn't work, then I'm absolutely screwed. But until then, this better fucking work._

"Where am I?" I groaned.

"The Autobot med bay. As soon as you feel better, the team needs to talk to you," Ratchet replied.

"Okay," I sighed, "I'm just glad Wasp rescued me. I had to put on an act for Megatron and pretended to fight. I did that so I could come back," I had tears in the corner of my optics and cried, "You don't know what they did to me."

"Shh," Ratchet soothed, "You're okay, now."

"Please don't ever leave me again in the hands of those filthy Decepticons again," I sniffled, "I need you."

Ratchet's optics widened, but said, "We will _never_ leave you again."

I smirked evilly internally and cackled, _HAHA, this is going just as I planned. They always were sentimental and weak…_

At that moment, the doors to the med bay swished open and in walked Optimus, "Are you alright, Flame? Can you use your arm?" he asked.

"I'm alright, Optimus. And my arm works fine now, thanks to our great medic," I replied.

"That's great, Flame. Do you think we could ask you some questions now about your time aboard the Nemesis?"

My face darkened and I replied, "Yes, sir."

Optimus led me to the control room where the others were waiting.

I faced Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, Wasp, and Wheeljack then asked, "Aren't you guys happy to see me? Oh, I'm wounded!"

Smiles broke out on all of their faces, and they ran over to hug me.

After they gained their composure, Arcee said, "We're going to start asking you questions about what happened."

I nodded my head, "Of course."

"What happened to you while you were on the Nemesis?" Ultra Magnus asked.

I had already formed my lie and replied, "When Megatron captured me, he put me into a dirty cell and threw energon on the ground. And then he told me to lick it up off the grimy floor. I refused and he punched me into the wall behind me. He left, and I was stuck in that dark, cold cell for days. After a few days, Knockout came and took me to his lab, so he could use the psychic patch to get info out of my head. But somehow I managed to make the pictures and voices blurred, so they had no luck. Then Starscream took me from Knockout's lab and put me into his torture chamber, and tried to force the info out of me, but I didn't budge, so Starscream gave up. Then Megatron entered the room and took me back with him. He had said that if he couldn't get any information out of me, then I would be his…"

"Be his what, Flame?" Arcee asked gently.

"HIS BERTH SLAVE!" I cried.

Everybody came over to help stop my sobbing.

 _Hehe, am I good or am I good? I ought to get a fucking award._

"That glitch will pay for what he has done!" Wheeljack yelled.

The others all agreed with him.

Ratchet walked over to me and said, "You should go recharge in your berth."

I sniffled, "Okay…"

I left the rest of them and walked towards my room then climbed into my old berth. Quickly, I fell into a deep recharge.

-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-

I must've been recharging for a few solar cycles because when I woke back up and went to the control room, Soundwave was bound to a metal slab with stasis cuffs over his servos and legs.

Wasp and I walked over to a wall and glared at nothing. Wasp glared at everything all the time, but I was just fucking sour.

 _How the hell did he get captured? He's like one of the hardest cons to even approach. He better not give away my cover. I fucking swear…_

"For the last time Soundwave, tell us what Megatron is building," Optimus pried.

" _ **SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**_!" Soundwave screeched.

Then he put a smiley face on his visor.

"Scrap this!" Ratchet said exasperated, "I'll just download all his memories to the computer."

All this code appeared on Soundwave's visor as soon as Ratchet said that.

"Yes!" Bulkhead exclaimed, "He's downloading the files."

"No, Bulkhead," Ratchet breathed, stricken, "He's _erasing_ them!"

Ratchet tried to intervene, but Soundwave had already erased it all.

Soundwave looked at the Autobots and said as he was forced into stasis, "Soundwave: Superior. Autobots: Inferior," then he turned to me, "Autocon: Beautiful."

He finally shut down, and I turned my back on everyone, trying to hide my blush and cursed internally, _FUUUUUuUUUuUUUUUuuuuuuUUUckkckkcKKKKKk. HE KNOWS. I THOUGHT HE DROPPED THAT SHIT. I KNEW I SHOULD'VE STAYED IN MY CAR MODE. HOW DID HE FUCKING FIGURE IT OUT. THAT LITTLE SHIT KNOWS EVERYTHING. HE KNOWS TOO MUCH! FUUUUUCK. SHIIIET. HOW THE HELL AM I GONNA GET OUTTA THIS SITUATION._

Wheeljack and Wasp caught my blushing, and Wasp grumbled, "Hmph, fraggers. Don't know what love is."

"What was that all about, _Autocon?"_ Wheeljack drew Autocon out loudly.

 _Primus, I have kept this secret for orns... Do I really have to tell them? Yes, you do. Or else, you may not get to go back to the Decepticons...I hate it when you're right._

I took a deep breath in, "Please...don't freak out. And _please_ don't cast me out for this, but...The reason I'm called an Autocon is because I'm not truly good, but I'm not...bad either. So, I don't really fall into either category, but I try to do good because...it just feels right. That's why I joined the Autobots. You may not see why these decisions are hard for me. But, see...my sire...is Primus and Unicron is my carrier…" I confessed.

Shock was written on everybody's faceplates.

"I never told anybot because I was afraid that nobody would accept me...I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Flame, you don't have to apologize for anything. You can't control who your parents are or how you're born, it just matters what you do. You did what you thought was right, and at least you're telling us now," Optimus replied gently.

"Thank you, Optimus," I said gratefully.

 _I kind of 'bs'ed my way through that one...I don't really give a shit about doing good. Whatever benefits me...At least I dodged a bullet with that one._

"So what? You're going to let a sparkling of Unicron to stay here?" Arce screamed.

 _Fuck._

"Even if she was born from Unicron, I believe everybot can change their spark," Optimus reassured.

 _PHEW!_ Thank you, Optimus!

"Hmph, I still don't trust her," Arcee grumped.

 _Shit._

"What I would like to know, Flame," Smokescreen spoke up, "is why did Soundwave call you beautiful? Have you been lying to us?"

I froze, _Fuck-shit._

"No!" I yelled, outraged, "The only con aboard that forsaken ship that was even nice enough to let me drink some of his energon when my tanks were low, was Soundwave! He was the one who cleaned up my injuries and kept me company when I was down. He was the one who made sure that I stayed sane on that shitty ship. And he was the only one who truly cared about me."

Everybody went dead silent.

"Why is everybody accusing ME for all these things when I tell you the truth! How about I accuse YOU for your actions! Why did you let me rot on that fucking ship?!" I pointed at Wasp and screamed, "Why did you have to rip of my arm! And why does everybot hate me!"

I ran into my room, fake tears dripping from my optics. I laid on my berth and sighed.

 _Ho. Ly. Shit. How did I get away with that? My carrier would be proud…_

I heard the door swish open.

"Go away," I mumbled.

"Nobot hates you, Flame. The rest of the team is probably just hatin' on you because you're cool and they're not, except me of course."

I turned around and saw Smokescreen at the door. He walked toward my berth and sat down when I sat up. He hesitated for a second, but then hugged me tightly.

"I'm sorry for raging and yelling at y'all. It's just that...every time I tell bots the truth, they send me away or accuse me for things that I, most likely, didn't do," I apologized.

"It's okay, Flame. Anyways, I'm going on a mission with the others to see if we can collect some data on predacons," Smokescreen replied.

"What about predacons?" I asked.

"Well, we've had a few encounters with one," Smokescreen answered truthfully.

I thought about the possibilities of a killer machine as an ally for the Decepticons, and I almost started laughing at the image of the look on the Autobots' faces as the predacon ripped off their limbs.

"Oh, wow. How long was I out for this to happen?"

"Two weeks."

"TWO WEEKS?" I screeched, "I thought it was only a few days!"

"Nah, it seems like you really needed that recharge more than you thought, huh?"

I shook my head, "Oh my Primus. Well, hopefully, not too many things have changed."

Smokescreen laughed, "Yeah, I guess it's pretty disorientating for you isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I've gotta go now," he stared at me intensely, "And we're leaving you with Soundwave. Optimus has faith in you that you can change, so don't disappoint us."

"Okay, I promise. I swear upon my very spark I will not let you down again," I promised, but lying straight through my denta.

Everybody left, and it was just me and Soundwave. I ran into the control room and shook Soundwave so hard, his visor almost popped off.

 _Hmm, that gives me an idea…_

"Fine, while you're still in stasis, I'll just see what your faceplate looks like," I teased.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Soundwave yelled.

I grinned as we strolled out of the base, and we transformed into our jet modes.

Then I realized if Soundwave wasn't in stasis, then he heard my whole story, "You heard what I said back there didn't you?"

"Yes, and don't worry. I won't tell," he reassured.

I sighed in relief, "Thank you."

I had never been so eager to see the Nemesis and Megatron in all my life, so when I saw the black glimmer of said ship, I broke the sound barrier, I was going so fast!

When Soundwave and I transformed back into our bipedal mode and approached Megatron, I observed 4 figures standing behind him.

"Welcome back, Soundwave and Flame. We have some new recruits. Some old friends I believe. You may step out of the shadows you 4."

I widened my optics. It couldn't be…


End file.
